Wednesday’s game will be the 40th of the season for the Vancouver Canucks, and they are in Washington to face Alex Ovechkin and the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals.
Game time is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. PT and it will be the second game of the Canucks’ five-game road trip.
In Monday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, Quinn Hughes returned from an injury that kept him out of the lineup for four games. Hughes played 26:15 in his return to the lineup. He picked up two assists in the game and had a season-high three blocked shots.
The story out of Washington for most of the season has been Ovechkin’s chase of the all-time goals record. Ovechkin currently sits with 872 goals and is only 23 goals shy of passing Wayne Gretzky for the most goals scored in an NHL career.
It’s hard to argue that the goal chase has been the Capitals’ biggest story of the season, but coming in a close second place has been the Caps’ strong play in the first half.
Washington has a 26-10-4 record under second-year coach Spencer Carbery. Carbery was born in Victoria, BC and played three seasons in the BCHL around the turn of the millennium.
Quick Hits on the Competition
- The Capitals have a 13-4-3 record on home ice this season. They’ve outscored their opposition 74-53 on home ice and have been most dominant in third periods at home; outscoring their opponents 20-11 in the final regulation frame.
- They are 7-3-2 when scoring first at home and 7-1-1 when taking a lead into the first intermission.
- The Capitals are the highest-scoring team in the league with an average goal output of 3.7.
- Dylan Strome leads the Caps in points with 45 (12g-33a) through 40 games. He has assisted on 14 of Ovechkin’s 19 goals. Strome also leads the Capitals with 15 power play assists and is averaging 17:43 per game. Strome plays on the Caps’ first line alongside Ovechkin and Taylor Raddysh.
- Strome leads the Caps with a 55.6% win percentage in the faceoff dot.
- 6’6” Aliaksei Protas is having a breakout season with the Caps and is second on the team with 35 points. The 24-year-old forward has scored 17 of his 18 goals at even-strength.
- It has been a dead-even split between the pipes with Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson having 20 starts apiece. Thompson has a 16-2-2 record, a 2.39 goals-against average, and a .916% save percentage.
- Rasmus Sandin and John Carlson patrol the blue line on the top-pairing. The pairing has played 172 minutes together at five-on-five this season and has been on the ice for nine goals scored and eight goals against.
- Their defence corps is rounded out with Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy on the second pairing and Martin Fehervary and Trevor van Riemsdyk on the third.
- Tom Wilson brings a physical impact every night and he leads the Caps with 123 hits this season. On top of his physicality, Wilson has notched 18 goals and added 14 assists.
The Story: Cannot Hide from Pressure
Since Rick Tocchet has come in as the head coach, one of his go-to sayings has been, ‘meet pressure with pressure.’
“You have to have your chest up, your chin up, and you got to face the music. There’s pressure everywhere and you can’t hide from it,” said Tocchet.
Wednesday’s game will kick off three games in four nights – the Canucks play Carolina on Friday and Toronto on Saturday.
Tocchet wants his players to play with high urgency but also stay calm between their ears. Aside from the mental side of the game, Tocchet wants to see his players participate better and go through their opposition.
An important part of battling pressure is working together in the team’s structure and not compounding mistakes. The coach knows that mistakes are going to happen, but he wants to see his players fall into the system and structure that limits the chance for compounding mistakes and back-door scoring chances.
Canucks’ Top Performers over the Last Five Games
J.T. Miller: 2g-6a-8p
Brock Boeser: 3g-1a-4p
Jake DeBrusk: 2g-2a-4p
Conor Garland: 2g-0a-2p
Jonathan Lekkerimäki: 1g-1a-2p
Tyler Myers: 1g-1a-2p
When and Where to Watch
Wednesday’s game is a 4:30 p.m. PT start, and you can watch it on Sportsnet or listen along to the radio call with Brendan Batchelor on Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.
